Simon Lewis has worked as a travel writer, researching the Rough Guides to China, Beijing, and Shanghai as well as writing for newspapers and magazines. His first novel Go, about backpackers, was written in a village in the Himalayas. His second novel, Bad Traffic, is a thriller about people smugglers. RTE: Describe yourself in a sentence?

Lewis: Untidy daydreamer.

RTE: What's the one record you'd take to a desert island?

Lewis: The Stone Roses. Mellow and evocative of happy times.

RTE: What did you want to be when you were growing up?

Lewis: An artist. I went to art school. But I studied conceptual art, and it seemed a bit pointless as real people didn't care about it, so I moved into writing.

RTE: Who's your oldest friend?

Lewis: My brother.

RTE: If I ruled the world...

Lewis: I would organise the handover of power to a democratically-elected representative. After looting the coffers.

RTE: Which book do you wish you'd written?

Lewis: The James Bond books are the best series. Graham Greene's The Quiet American - which I have read a dozen times, yet never owned, as there is a copy (usually a Vietnamese fake) sitting on the bookshelf of every hostel in Asia.

RTE: What makes you angry?

Lewis: Losing things on my computer. I know it's my fault for forgetting to save, but I have come close to smashing the thing.

RTE: Name your five dream dinner party guests.

Lewis: I would sit Jane Austen next to Amy Winehouse and Oscar Wilde by Elmore Leonard, which would leave me with Helena Bonham-Carter.

RTE: Who would you least like to be stuck in a lift with?

Lewis: Dracula, obviously. I have actually been stuck in a lift with an alcoholic and his incontinent dog, and that was pretty bad.

RTE: What inspired you to start writing?

Lewis: Travelling.

RTE: Where would you most like to live?

Lewis: Little walled Chinese town called Dali, where I wrote much of my last book, Bad Traffic. Mountain, lake, nice weather, great coffee.